The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1887-12-09

present situation demands remedy, we can
only be saved from like predicament in the
future by the removal OF its cause
Our scheme OF taxation, by means of which
this needless surplus is taken from the people
ana put into the pubic treasury consists OF q
tarlu or auty evied upon importations from
ABROAD, and lntefnal-reveaue taxes levied upon
the consumption of tobacco and spirltuous and
malt liquors. It must be conceded that none OF
me things subjected to internal-revenue taxa.
ton are, strictly speaking, necessaries; there
appears to be no just complaint OF this taxation
oy the consumers OF these articles and there
seems TO be nothing so well able to bear the
buraen without hardship to any portion Of the
people.
But our present tariff laws-the vicious in
equitable and illogical source of unnecessary
taxat!on-ougntL 10 be at once revised ana amend
ed. Ihese laws, as their primary and plain
erect, raise the price TO consumers of all arti-
eles imported and subject to duty, by pre-
oisely tae sum paid Tor such duties. Thus
the amount of the duty measures the tax paid
by those VINO purchase for use these imported
avaf are Many iaso Of d these 9eg how
our own country, and the duties now LEVIED up
on 1orelsa goods and products are called pro-
lection &c these home manufactures, because
they render it possible for those of cur people
who are manufacturers to make these taxed
articles and sell them for a price equal to
that demanded for the imported goods that
have pad customs duty. So it happens
that while comparatively few use
the imported articles, millions of our
people, who never use and never saw any of the
foreign products, purchase and use things OF the
same kind made in this country, and pay there
Tor nearly or quite the same enhanced price
which the duty adds to the imported articles.
Those wLo buy imports pay the duty charged
thereon into the public treasury, but the great
majority OF our citizens, who buy domestic
articles of the same class, pay sum al
least approximately equal to this duty to the
home manufacturer. Tnls reference to the op-
Grafton OF our tariff laws is not made by way
4y11tr
stantly reminded of the manner in which they
impose burden upon those who consume do.
mesuc products as we'll as those WHO consume
imported articles, and thus create q tax upon
all our people.
It is not proposed to entirely relieve the
country OF this taxation. 1t must be extern
slYely continued as the source OF the Govern
ment's income; and in REIMBURSEMENT OF
engaged In manufacture should be care
fully considered, as we'll as the preserve
ton OF our manufacturers. 1t may be called
protection or by any other NAME but
RELIEF from the hardships and dangers Of our
present tariff laws should be devised with
espec al precaution against imperiling the SIX,
IsJance OF our manufacturing interests. But
this existence should not mean conGt.
ton which, without regard to the pub
I'D welfare or p national eXigency, must al
ways insure the real zation OF immense profits
instead of moderately profitable returns. AS he
volume and diversity OF our National activities
increase, new recruits are added to those who
desire continuation Of the advantages which
they conceive the present system of tariff
taxation directly affords them. So stub.
bornly have all efforts to reform the present
condition been resisted by those of our fellow
citizens thus engaged that they can hardly
complain OF the susp C on, entertained to Ger.
tain extent, that there exists an organized com.
blnation all along the line to MAINTAIN their al
vantage.
We are in the midst Of centennial celebra-
tons and with becoming pride we rejoice il
,elr,
ergy and enterprise, and IN the wonderful nat
ural advantages and resources deyel.
oped by centurys National growth.
Yet when an attempt 10 made to
justify scheme which permits a tax to be
laid upon every consumer in the lana for the
benefit Of our manufacturers, quite beyond d
reasonable demand for governmental regard,
1t suits the purposes OF advocacy to call our
manufactures infant Industries, still needing
The highest and greatest gree Of favor and
fostering care that can be wrung IRON Federal
leg station.
1t is also said that the increase in the price
OF domestic manufactures resulting from
the present tariff is necessary in order that
higher wages may be paid to our working
men employed in manufactures than are
paid for what is called the pauper labor
OF Europe. All will acknowledge the force
OF an argument which involves the
Gfelfarc and liberal compensation OF
our laboring people. Our labor is honorable in
the eyes OF every American citizen, and as it
hes at the foundation of our development and
progress, it is entitled, without affectation or
hypocrisy. to the utmost regard. The standard
OF our laborers' life should not be measured by
that Of any other country less favored, and they
are entitled to their full share Of all our adj
yantages.
BY the last census it is made to appear that
OF the l7,S9s,o99 OF our POPULATION engaged in
all kinds of Industries, 7,e7G,49S are employed
in agriculture, 4,074,2 s in professlonsA AID per
sonal service (2,934, $40 Of whom are domestic
servants and laborersl while 1,s1o,256 are en-
ployed III trade and transportation and 1881, IL
are classed as employed IN manufacturing and
min ng.
For present purposes, however, the last mum.
Der gwen should be considerably reduced
Without attempting to enumerats all, it Will
be conceded that there should be deducted
from those which it includes 375, 14l carpenters
and ]olnsrs, % ,401 m liners, dressmakers and
seamstresses, 17s7- blacksmlths, 1888 756 taiIors
and talloresses, 1922 473 masons 76, 241 butchers,
1,309 bakers, 2065 plaSterers and 1871 engag-
ed IN manufacturing agricultural implements,
amounting in the a gregate to l,214,0g3, leaving
2,dsS0o9 persons employed in such manu-
be benefited by q high tariff To these
the appeal 10 made to save their EN-.
ployment and maintain their wages by
resisting change. There should be no dts
cation that they are in minority among those
who labor, and therefore should forego an ad-
vantage, in the interest OF low prices for the
majority; their compensation. as it may be az
all times be scrupulously kept in view;
and yet with slight reflection they will not over
look the fact that they are consumers with the
rest; that they, too, have their own wants and
those OF their families to supply from their
earnings, and that the price of the necessaries
OF life, as well as the amount of their wages,
will regulate the measure of their welfare and
comfort
But the reduction OF taxation demanded
should be so measured as not to necessitate or
JUSTIFY either the loss OF employment by the
Worklngman nor the leSsening OF his wages; and
the profits still remaining to the manufacturer
after necessary feadlustment, should fur
nish no excuse for the sacrifice of the
interests of his employees either in their oppor-
tunity to work or in the diIninution of their
compensation Nor can the worker in manu-
features fail to understand that while high
tariff is claimed to be necessary to allow the
payment OF remunerative wages, it certainly
OF nearly all sorts of manufactures,
which, in almost countless forms, he needs for
the use OF himself and his family. He receives
at the desk OF his employer his wages, and per-
haps before he reaches his home is obliged, in q
purchase for family use of an article which en-
braces his own labor, to return, in the payment
OF the increase in price which the tariff per-
nlits, the hard-earned compensation of many
days of toll
The farmer and the agriculturist who manu-
facture nothing, but who pay the increased
pr ce which the tariff imposes, upon every agri-
cultural implement upon all he wears and upon
all he uses and owns, except the increase of his
hocks and herds and such things as his hus-
bandry produces from the soil, is invited to
aid in maintaining the present situation and
he is told that high duty on imported wool is
necessary for the benefit of those who have
sheep to shear, in order that the price of their
wool may be increased. They, of course are
not reminded that the farmer who has no sheep
is by this scheme obliged in his purchases OF
clothing and wooden goods, to pay tribute
to his fellow farmer well as to the
manufacturer an merchant; nor is any men,
ton made of the fact that the sheep-owners
themselves and their households must wear
Clothing and use other articles manufactured
from the wool they sell at tariff pr ces, and
thus, as consumers, must return their share OF
this increased price to the tradesnan.
think it may be fairly assumed that a large
proportion of the sheep owned by the farm ers
throughout the country are found in small
Hocks numbering from twenty-five to fifty.
The duty on the grade of imported wool
which these sheep yield is 10 cents each
pound if of the value of 30 cents or less, and
II cents If Of the value of more than 80 cents Ii
the liberal estimate of six pounds be allowed
for each fleece, the duty thereon would be sixty
or seventy-two cents. and this may be taken as
the utmost enhancement Of its price to the
farmer by reason OF this duty. Eighteen dol
lars would thus represent the increased price
OF the wool from twenty-five sheep, and S36
that from the wool of fifty sheep, and at
about one-third of its price. If, upon its sale,
the farmer receives this or a less tariff profit,
the wool leaves his hands charged with precisely
that sum, which in all its changes will adhere to
It, until it reaches the consumer. When manu-
featured into cloth and other goods and f1atnri-